goombah99 writes: Cloaking of broadband light, ala the Romulans, has been shown to be impossible for passive, locally responsive media (i.e. No Acme invisible paint). Recently, Sir Pendry et al showed that a hollow thick shell of negative refractive index material will act as cloaking device for objects placed in the interior. A difficulty with that system is that at present broad waverlength negative index matrials are not possible. Now, David Miller describes in Optics Express a active system can be built using some simple math that would give the appearance of a cloaking for broad wavelengths. It would not be useful against temporal probes like Radar, but would give the illusion of looking through the volume of space when viewed from any angle. He discusses how simplified systems which approximate cloaking are also possible using local response properties (i.e. Acme quasi-invisible paint).

vldragon writes: The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) will now be requiring drug testing on players in 2007. It seems there is concern that players could be using drugs such as crystal meth and Ritalin to increase their gameplay.

From the article:
That "edge" has become a growing concern for some in professional gaming, who believe gamers could potentially use illegal drugs such as crystal methamphetamine and even prescription medications like Ritalin to increase their alertness, reflex times, physical stamina and mental concentration. TwitchGuru previously reported on how such substances are being abused by gamers at LAN parties, and the possible threat of performance-enhancing drugs tainting professional competitions where hundreds of thousands of dollars are stake.

s31523 writes: "The company I work at has a flex time policy where basically, you can come in and leave within a window of time, as long as you are in the office during "core" hours (10am-2pm). Best Buy has gone extreme, they have completely banished traditional views of office hours. According to the article, there are no schedules. No mandatory meetings. No impression-management hustles. The coolest thing, apparently this "began as a covert guerrilla action that spread virally and eventually became a revolution". Maybe I ought to try this at my office!"

Thalin writes: NASA has announced today that data from the Mars Global Surveyor indicates photographic evidence for the existence of liquid, flowing water on Mars.

NASA photographs have revealed bright new deposits seen in two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them sometime during the past seven years.
"These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, Washington.

MajorBytes writes: "Water flows on Mars.
In one image, a shining snake of light flows from a hidden spring into a crater's depression, an orbiting camera aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor catching sunlight reflected by the evaporating liquid. In another, a smear of ice grows mysteriously over a period of years, expanding like a slow-motion inkblot over the red planet's parched landscape.
More of the story here....
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2006/12/flowing_wate r_o.html"

Cherita Chen writes: "In June of 2000, Malin Space Science Systems released images taken from the Mars Orbital Camera (MOC) aboard the Mars Global Surveyor (now missing in action) showing "youthful-appearing" gullies on slopes at middle and high latitudes on Mars. A subsequent story was published in Science Magazine suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.

During the years since the original June 2000 report, the MGS MOC was used to test the hypothesis that the gullies may be so young that some of them could still be active today. The way the test was conducted was very simple: re-image gullies previously seen by MOC and see if anything changed.

The contrast between the images taken in 2000, with the images released today are quite compelling..."

rdwald writes: It seems that the question isn't whether Mars once held water, but whether it holds water right now, waiting to be used. From the article:

Observations from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) have revealed "recent activity" on the surface of the red planet; recent meaning in the past seven years. These changes include cratering from impacts (which is cool enough, and I'll blog about those later), but also, yes, the flow of water.

The article goes on to describe two images, taken in 1999 and 2005, which show the same crater with a new, post-1999 gully which appears to have been formed by water flow. Looks like future (and maybe present?) Martians have one less problem.

Myomancy writes: "NASA say they have spotted signs of liquid water on the surface of Mars in the last five years.
Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego said on a podcast:

The news about water is that we have found two gullies out of the 10,000 that we have observed that have fresh deposits that we believe were formed by water flowing out recently... Within the last five years.

An anonymous reader writes: NASA scientists announced Wednesday afternoon stunning revelations from Mars Global Surveyor: Cumulative evidence of liquid water flowing on Mars — not millions of years ago but right now.
MGS mission scientists showed changes in a gully in a crater that all but proves liquid flowed through the gully between 1999 and 2004.
"You've all heard of a smoking gun...This a squirting gun," said Mars Exploration Program scientist Michael Meyer.
The scientists say the water seen in the MGS images is the equivalent of 5-10 swimming pools.

From the article:"These fresh deposits suggest that at some places and times on present-day Mars, liquid water is emerging from beneath the ground and briefly flowing down the slopes. This possibility raises questions about how the water would stay melted below ground, how widespread it might be, and whether there's a below-ground wet habitat conducive to life. Future missions may provide the answers," said Malin.

SonicSpike writes: "According to Reuters: "Images taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft suggest the presence of liquid water on the Martian surface, a tantalizing find for scientists"..."The orbiting U.S. spacecraft allowed scientists to detect changes in the walls of two Martian craters that may have been caused by the recent flow of water, a team of researchers said in a paper appearing on Wednesday in the journal Science."